


I'm so hollow, baby, I'm so hollow.

by Daximed



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Ficlet, M/M, Sad Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-15
Updated: 2015-02-15
Packaged: 2018-03-13 04:06:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3367172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daximed/pseuds/Daximed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Winter in Orlais.<br/>Dorian would later think to himself, a terse pout drawn upon his sharp features.<br/>It’s like a bad omen in itself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'm so hollow, baby, I'm so hollow.

**Author's Note:**

> Another ficlet I posted to tumblr, this one is a little more decent in length.
> 
> I had to base the Inquisitor on my own a little more this time to be able to probably tell the story, but I figured it was easy enough to imagine him as a warrior or a mage instead of a rogue to better fit your own quiz <3
> 
> (I actually made an alternate ending that's cute and happy because I made myself too sad omg)
> 
> Title is from "Goodbye my Lover" by James Blunt.

It happened in the winter some years after the fall of Corypheus, and a light snow had just begun to dust over the already frozen hills of Emprise du Lion.

_Winter in Orlais._  
Dorian would later think to himself, a terse pout drawn upon his sharp features.  
 _It’s like a bad omen in itself._

Sightings of rogue Venatori agents dispersing themselves throughout southern Thedas had started cropping up. There were those out there that still believed in some disillusioned idea of grandeur to restore Tevinter to what it had once been, with or without a leader.

"Cut off the head, the serpent will flounder," Leliana had hummed, crossing her arms and shifting her weight to one hip. There were small crow markers placed haphazardly around the war room’s map. "They are disorganized and lost fighting for a cause they desperately hope will make sense to them as it once had."

It was simple for the most part. Take out an operative here, a make-shift mercenary band there. Things the Inquisitor and his companions hardly blinked at.  
In hindsight, maybe they shouldn’t have let their guards down so quickly.

They had tracked the few remaining agents to a secluded cave which weaved through the rugged landscape of Emprise du Lion.

Bull had gladly accepted the invitation. "You know I’m always game for tearing apart some vints, Boss. Let me give Krem the run down, and put him in charge of the boys while I’m out raising some hell." The Qunari barked a laugh, slapping the Inquisitor’s shoulder in comradery before parting.  
Cole was equally enthusiastic, a quick nod bobbing his large hat in front of his face. "Yes. These are bad, bad men… Roaring, ravaging, ripping flesh to ribbons like thin parchment paper as they smile wickedly, wrathful… It would be best to end this quickly."  
Dorian… Dorian needed coaxing.

"Emprise du Lion? You do realize what it is you are asking of me?" He sniffed, shoving a thick tome back into one of the library’s many bookshelves a bit too forcefully.  
"I’ll remind you. A frigid, unforgiving, wasteland that I am most likely to catch hypothermia and die a sad, cold death. It is without a doubt the last place the Maker created."  
A beat.  
"By created, of course, I mean to say He took a shit in the middle of Orlais and named it after a lion."  
The Inquisitor huffed in amusement, a shy smirk pulled at his lips.  
"Sometimes I wonder why I like having you around so much, and then you go and remind me exactly what drew me to you in the first place."  
Dorian shared the smile, turning his head toward the man with a quirked brow,  
"Ahh, yes. My crude remarks do amuse that young boy’s sense of humor you seem to carry in that overgrown body of yours."  
"Do you sweet talk everyone like this?"  
"Only the ones I plan on keeping around, Amatus."  
The Inquisitor extended his arm, running his palm along the side of Dorian’s short, cropped hair, and holding it there. Dorian leaned into the warmth, visibly relaxing from the touch alone. His eyes slipped shut, a somewhat defeated sigh escaping his lips.  
"Isn’t there anyone else you could take? Another mage perhaps?"  
"They wouldn’t be you."  
A sharp exhale left Dorian’s nostrils, that hint of a smile graced his features again.  
"Very true."

When it was all said and done, they were mid-battle in the very bowels of the snowy mountains.  
Five Venatori agents.  
Two archers, two armored tanks, and one mage.  
This was the final battle.

The Inqusitor and Cole quickly dropped into stealth, slipping into the shadows just as Dorian dropped a barrier for the two rouges while The Iron Bull waited for their signal. Once the two assassins had successfully carved blades into the backs of the archers, Bull charged in with a cry to draw the armored agents onto himself.  
Dorian continued casting barriers and supportive spells to further his companions’ heavy assault. Cole had managed to slip a blade between a weak armor plate in the back of one of the tanks, effectively subduing him enough for Bull to bring his axe down for one last blow. The pair quickly made haste to lock onto the other tank who the Inquisitor seemed to have dancing in circles as the bulkier enemy tried to find a hold on the quick rogue.

A grin flashed bright on Dorian’s face as he began preparing to cast another barrier around his companions. The brute of an agent was just about to fall from his wounds when the Inquisitor dropped to stealth out of the corner of Dorian’s casting range. No matter, after this agent fell… Wait. Wasn’t there another?

A mage. There had been a mage. Why hadn’t he seen the mage this entire fight? What could the agent possibly-  
The smell of static and ozone hovered strongly in the air. He finished the barrier cast on Bull and Cole. The short hairs on his forearms rose in panic, as if to warn him of what was to come next.

"Dorian!"

A shout. The Inquisitor’s voice, he realized too late, and then he was being forcibly shoved onto the cold, dirt floor.  
He rolled once, twice, before a sickeningly sharp crackling noise echoed around the cave’s hollow walls.  
Dorian shook his head, willing his eyes to focus and his scrapped arms to hoist him up. It was just enough so that he could turn and see a stricken look of horror paint the agent’s face, that had previously been out of Dorian’s peripheral view, as Cole removed two daggers from his bloodied robes.

A sharp smirk slipped onto Dorian’s face.  
"Well, that wasn’t so bad, but was that shove so necessary, dear Inquisitor? I think you sprained my wrist," Dorian noted with a soft chuckle, turning further so that the Inquisitor’s back was now in view.

The man’s posture hadn’t changed though. The Inquisitor was hunched slightly, knees bent and stance wide as if posed for attack. Two freshly bloodied daggers were still gripped in his palms.  
The stench of electricity still hung heavy in the air as Dorian slowly lifted himself from the ground, taking a tentative step forward. He thought he heard Bull swear harshly under his breath off to the side.

"Inquisitor?" Dorian prompted once more, noticing a slight tremor run through the man’s arms.

Clink, Clink.

The daggers slipped from the Inquisitor’s clenched hands. As if a visible shudder traveled up the man’s spine, he dropped to his knees and fell forward enough to echo in the cave once more.

"Amatus!"

Dorian’s eyes had grown to the size of saucers as he nearly hurdled the few strides it took to drop down next to the man’s unmoving form. Dorian quickly took the Inquisitor in his arms, turning him over and cupping his face tenderly. His eyes darted across the jagged pattern zig-zagging and branching across the Inquisitor’s body like tree roots. There was a section of the man’s cloth top that had been burned off almost entirely which the harsh markings followed along the expanse of exposed skin.

The smell. The sound. It was all clicking together before Dorian’s horror-striken eyes.  
The venatori agent had cast a lightening spell.  
The agent meant to hit Dorian.  
The Inquisitor noticed just a moment too late.  
The Inquisitor pushed him.  
The Inquisitor took the hit directly.  
The Inquisitor saved his life, in place of his-

"Amatus! Love, please, can you hear me? Please say something, please I beg you, please!" Dorian’s voice had raised an octave in his panic. He distantly registered the sound of The Iron Bull’s heavy gait approaching, and a familiar, listless voice to his side.

"Fretful, fearful, falling… I am falling and I can not see the light. What has my foolishness cost me? What will become of me if he is… Dread, depression, despair, if he is dead?"

Dorian’s features had twisted into something painful as big, ugly tears rolled from his eyes.  
"Cole! Stay out of my head!" Dorian snapped, unthinking in his blind panic.

A beat.  
A desperate idea.

"Can you hear him? Please, Cole, tell me what he’s saying! Please, I beg you."  
Dorian worried his lip harshly, cradling the unmoving man closer to his chest as if his own body heat would case the man to stir.

The boy drew closer, blinking owlishly down from his wide-brimmed hat. Cole’s brow scrunched, focused, before his eyes grew wide. He opened his mouth, a strangled intake of breath the only noise to escape. He swallowed shallowly, his lip quivering, before trying again.

"I don’t hear anything."

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on tumblr!  
> http://daximed.tumblr.com/


End file.
